Dr Marilyn Mallia, from the Department of French, has recently published a monograph entitled Présence du roman gothique anglais dans les premiers romans de George Sand, with well-known Parisian publishing house Classiques Garnier. Her book is based on her doctoral research, which had won a prize for best Ph.D. thesis by the George Sand Association.
The role of the Gothic novel in the early novels of George Sand goes well beyond the mere recycling of techniques of suspense and gothic backdrops. This work highlights the active way in which Sand reappropriates the genre and draws out particular dimensions of the gothic model – female doubling, the heroine’s gothic itinerary and the problematic dénouement.
Sand rewrites these pressure points in order to explore her ideological concerns relating to her egalitarian ideals and the restrictions on female agency imposed by the Napoleonic Code. Sand's work, open to the influence of foreign traditions, also invites us to question the generic separation between French Romanticism and the English Gothic.
Sand rewrites these pressure points in order to explore her ideological concerns relating to her egalitarian ideals and the restrictions on female agency imposed by the Napoleonic Code. Sand's work, open to the influence of foreign traditions, also invites us to question the generic separation between French Romanticism and the English Gothic.
